of his Epistle to the Romans dwell upon the Lord's dealings with Israel and the Gentiles, and show clearly that the many prophecies which went before upon this point have not received accomplishment. "Hath God cast away His people?" he asks. "God forbid" is the reply, "I would not, brethren,

that ye should be ignorant of this mystery that blindness in part has happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob; for this is my covenant unto them when I shall take away their sins."*

We find evidence enough, then to prove clearly both from the Old Testament and the New, THAT A DAY OF RESTORATION IS IN STORE FOR ISRAEL; THAT

HER TRIBES WILL BE GATHERED AND BROUGHT TO

THEIR OWN LAND, and there be placed in a position of greater blessedness than they have ever yet enjoyed.

Let us then inquire respecting Israel, seeing they have been so long time scattered over all the earth WHAT THEIR POSITION IS AT PRESENT; whether there are any signs of their return to Palestine; and generally how the Lord is dealing with them.

As of old time, so we see them still-without a country, without a city, without a temple, dispersed among the nations, yet distinct from all. In Europe, Asia, Africa, and America the Jew is to be found; a marked man; important, yet despised; honorable, yet a by-word and a reproach. The Israelitish people dwell alone though they are everywhere, and are not

* See also Galatians iii., Hebrews xii., Rev. vii.

reckoned among the nations.* "The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!" In some respects however a great change has come over the whole Jewish people. There are signs of life, of nobility, of an effort on behalf of their nationality, which has not for eighteen hundred years existed. Though still distinct as ever from the rest of men-the Lord is leading them, from their degraded state to fill the highest posts of public confidence. "The number of civic functionaries in FRANCE belonging to the Jewish Communion, is immensely larger than the proportionate Israelitish population. M. Achille Fould, at Paris, is but the head of a cohort of Jewish notabilities, financiers, and employés, who are quite as numerous in the departments as in the Capital. At Lyons, Marseilles, and other towns of the South, a large number of the higher government officials are Jews, and at Epinal, the chief city of the department of the Vosges, there is the curious spectacle of the four most eminent civic functionaries, the paymaster, the military superintendent, the president of the court of justice, and the keeper general of forests, being Jews, one and all. Scarcely a century ago, the Jews were hunted like mad dogs in the dominion of the Kaiser, at the mercy of every monk or police officer, and without the slightest security for life and property. Now, in this year, 1862, two eloquent Jews are the leaders of the great liberal party of the Austrian Reichsrath, and Emperor and Imperial Ministers tremble before the † Lamentations iv. 2.

*Numbers xxiii. 9.

names of Giskra and Kuranda. More marked than even in Austria is the rise of the Jews in PRUSSIA. In the present political agitation, Hebrew leaders play the most conspicuous part, and their participation in the recent elections was so pronounced that the Kreux Zeitung for weeks did scarce anything else but abuse the, so-styled, Jew democrats. According to this paper, nearly one-fourth the number of Wäller chosen by the people of Prussia to elect the deputies was composed of Jews. A number about twenty times as large as is warranted by the population of the kingdom. At Berlin and other large towns the Hebrew preponderance was still more conspicuous; and in some of the ancient POLISH provinces the descendants of Abraham had it all their own way. On classifying the students of the Universities and high-schools, the startling result is displayed that the superior academies are attended by five times as many Jews in proportion to Christians, regard, of course, being had to the general population, of which the Israelites form scarcely one and a half per cent. The educated Jews form part in all the revolutionary movements from the Ural to the Atlantic, and from Lapland to Sicily. They are, as it were, the yeast of the European fermentation. The Jew-element is perceptible in the Galician peasantry, in the Finnish malcontents, in the Servia progressists, and in the surging masses of Revolutionary Poland."* Moreover, it is confidently stated that wheresoever of late the Jew is found, whether in Scandinavia, in Continental Europe, in England, on the edge of the North

* Prophetical Journal, October, 1862.

ready for the reception There is wealth there.

African sea shore, or in the desert of the South,-he has lost the downcast hopelessness of former years; a change has come over him; he feels his membership with a nation which is rising into greatness; his face is looking towards Jerusalem, and he expects with confidence that the day is close at hand when he shall return to the land of the covenant, and inherit the fruition of the promises. Besides this, all is getting of Israel in the HOLY LAND. Cultivation is going on, and fruitfulness follows. JERUSALEM itself has undergone a change. The city but a few years since was "poor and miserable in its appearance, the houses mean and dirty, the streets narrow and crooked. Now the streets are wide and straight, and alive with the busy hum of traffic. Many handsome buildings have been erected, with beautiful gardens attached, in which flourish all the luscious fruits of this favored clime. Fine churches, synagogues, hospitals, dispensaries, hotels, and stores are everywhere met with, and rich men from Constantinople, Babylon, Bagdad, Damascus, Egypt, England, France, and other places have contributed by their presence to improve and beautify Jerusalem."* Preparation then is going on in Israel's ancient capital; and seeing it is evident that the heart of all the nation is set earnestly upon the hallowed territory, and that the people are obtaining power in the world and favor also, of no ordinary kind; I know not what now hinders but that we may seriously expect the sons of Israel will speedily

* Taunton's "Days in which we live."

call Palestine their own, and people that long-pro-V mised land with those WHOSE RIGHT IT IS.

But now a most important question comes before. us: viz., IN WHAT STATE AS TO RELIGION will the tribes of Israel be when they return to Palestine? Will they first embrace the Gospel? or will they be restored in unbelief?

We find the Lord thus speaking by EZEKIEL. "Because ye are all become dross; behold I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem. As they gather silver, and brass and iron, and lead, and tin, into the midst of the furnace to blow the fire upon it, to melt it, so will I gather you in mine anger and in my fury, and I will LEAVE YOU THERE AND MELT YOU. Yea, I will gather you, and blow upon you in the fire of my wrath, and ye shall be melted in the midst thereof: as silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall ye be melted in the midst thereof: and ye shall know that I THE LORD have poured out my fury upon you." Now this gathering of Israel was to be after they should have been scattered among the heathen, and dispersed in the countries, and after they should have been so dealt with that the heart of the nation could not "endure" nor the hands thereof be "strong." This language is not certainly consistent with the return of Israel in a converted state; neither indeed is that of any other part of Scripture. But rather the whole voice of prophecy bids us first behold the tribes of Israel (or at least part thereof) gathered and established in the land of their fathers, and then afterwards, the

* Ezekiel xxii.